Eighty-seven out of 91 deceased former National Football League (NFL) players tested positive for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease linked to concussions, a new study published Friday by Frontline has revealed.
The research, which was carried out by doctors at Boston University and the US Department of Veterans Affairs, also identified CTE in 79 percent (131 of 165) of all football players analyzed, ESPN and CBS Sports reported. The results also indicated that 40 percent of the positive tests came from the brains of offensive or defensive linemen.
Dr. Ann McKee, chief of neuropathology at the VA Boston Healthcare System, explained that the findings indicate that CTE is a “very real disease. People think that we’re blowing this out of proportion, that this is a very rare disease and that we’re sensationalizing it… [from] where I sit, this is a very real disease. We have had no problem identifying it in hundreds of players.”
While concussions are one of the likely causes of the condition, recent studies have shown that minor head trauma occurring regularly during the course of a football game poses as much of a risk (if not more) than periodic and more violent collisions. The disease can cause memory loss, depression, and dementia, scientists have discovered.
Pro football ‘has never been safer,’ NFL doctor claims
In recent years, three former players who committed suicide (Dave Duerson, Ray Easterling, and Junior Seau) were all found to have CTE, and in 2010, the NFL gave a $1 million donation to the same brain bank that helped carry out the new study.
While the authors said that the high percentage of CTE cases should concern the league, they did caution that their findings were somewhat skewed, as many of the brains which has been donated to the lab came from former players who already believed that they had the condition. Currently, CTE can only be definitively diagnosed post-mortem, but doctors are using brain scans to try and detect signs of the disease in living athletes.
In a statement, the NFL said that it is “dedicated to making football safer and continue to take steps to protect players, including rule changes, advanced sideline technology, and expanded medical resources. We continue to make significant investments in independent research through our gifts to Boston University, the [National Institutes of Health] and other efforts to accelerate the science and understanding of these issues.”
Dr. Joseph Maroon, a neurosurgeon with the Pittsburgh Steelers who advises the NFL on head, neck, and spine injuries, downplayed the risk of CTE earlier this year, according to ESPN.com. Dr. Maroon said that the game “has never been safer.”
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Feature Image: Erik Drost/Flickr
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